


I started dreaming of cats that are dead

by Northflower



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Gen, Horror, Nightmares, vision of shadows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-10 00:57:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16460408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northflower/pseuds/Northflower
Summary: Violetpaw had apparently witnessed Needletail’s death. Now with some of Darktail’s schemes revealed, the remaining Shadowclan cats were concerned of their warriors not having gotten a proper burial. Rowanstar himself was disinterested, claiming those cats were traitors and deserved to die like rogues.





	I started dreaming of cats that are dead

I don't remember when the nightmares started, but I'll never forget how the first one sent chills down my spine.

I blamed it on stress caused by working a little too hard in the medicine den and the somewhat unstable situation the Clans were currently in with Shadowclan having trouble with rogues that I very well remembered. I sometimes ran into some of them while gathering herbs. They were living at the edge of Shadowclan territory and I would catch glimpses of them across the border. I saw Darktail once. I avoided his icy blue gaze, as that made me remember things I would rather not remember. The horror of the time spent with "SkyClan" had never left me.

But the eyes of an enemy could not compare with the guilt that would settle in my stomach knowing that it was us who led them here in the first place.

I dreamt of an empty, dark clearing, in which I could barely see. I smelled it before I saw it, as my eyes were still getting used to the darkness. The disgusting smell of death made me choke, and for a moment I thought I would throw up. I was glad I didn't, but soon I'd become to consider being able to empty my stomach an act of mercy from the stars above. In the middle of the clearing lay a cat with terrible injuries. Her eyes were screwed shut in anguish, and when I ran closer to the whimpering creature I noticed that some of her limbs had been dislodged in a way that looked quite painful.

"Help me.." she was able to groan. Despite not recognizing the cat, I told her it's going to be alright and that I would try to pop her joints back to place but it would hurt. She didn't even seem to hear me but kept asking for help. I wondered if I'd be able to hold her still on my own but there was no one else around so I told her to stay still, pressed my other paw to her back while keeping the other firmly on the ground. I grabbed her front leg with my teeth, prepared, and tugged sharply. 

There was a sickening sound of flesh being torn as her leg came off completely. I leaped back in horror, feeling nauseous again. Her now dismembered limb was on the ground, a lot of her fur had come off as well so there was nothing to cover the spot where I'd torn this poor cat's leg off. I felt horrible, but the cat hadn't screamed in pain like I expected she would. I scurried to check if she was still breathing while apologies spilled out of my mouth. I was an unworthy medicine cat, I thought. And my worst fear was confirmed true when I realized she wasn't breathing and her heart had stopped. Her eyes were closed, her brows still furrowed. I felt as if my own heart stopped and the apologies died down. I had just killed my patient. 

But just as a sob was threatening to break out of my throat, the cat drew in a throaty breath. I jumped, feeling first terrified, then happy, and then I watched in horror as the cat's jaw came loose as well. She continued chanting, "help me", and tried getting up on her three limbs put collapsed right back. That's when I noticed that her fur had come off in several other places and under some of those bare spots there was bloody, rotten flesh that was undoubtedly the cause of the smell. I could only wonder, how was this cat still alive? 

I later came to terms with the fact that she wasn't.

Every night I would have the same nightmare. Despite how much I hated it, it was difficult to get up in the morning as I wouldn’t get much rest. The cat was decaying more and more every day, soon her bones were visible in several parts of her body and she couldn’t get up or speak at all. She tried though, and as long as she had eyes I felt they were always following me in that dream.

The nausea carried through to when I was awake, and I swear I could sometimes still fell the smell of rotting flesh filling my mouth during the day. I don’t know if Leafpool and Jayfeather noticed how jumpy and tired I was, but I think it’s quite likely they knew. I heard them talk about me in hushed voices when they thought I wasn’t within hearing distance.

One night when I opened my eyes standing in the dark clearing again, the bad smell that had slowly started to fade as there was not much left to rot was back, stronger than ever. As I looked around I saw that there was another cat there, a tom this time. He was trying to crawl toward me, his head hanging to the side in an unnatural way. He was practically dragging it behind him. He gurgled out the thing I had become so used to hearing; he was pleading for help. I backed away from the carcass, and as he moved quite slowly I was able to avoid him for the entire night and all the nights that would follow.

It occurred to me the dreams could be a sign from StarClan, just like when I had seen the SkyClan cats screaming in fear in my dreams. But those dreams didn’t reoccur. They didn’t come back to haunt me every night. And the cats in those dreams had been alive. How could I help someone who was already dead?

More and more corpses invaded my dreams as moons went by. There was no peace for me anymore. They were all asking for help, but whenever I questioned them on what they wanted they wouldn’t reply. Their wet, blood-soaked furs clinging to their skin, they would attempt to crawl toward me every night until they became unable. The first cat who’d been in my dreams had already been reduced to nothing but a skeleton, unable to move or speak, although I swear I could sometimes see the bones trying to come together and get up from the corner of my eye. Once I was sure of what I was seeing I kicked the bones so that the scattered around the clearing. I did not need any more cats following me around in the dark.

One night I saw someone familiar in my dream. There was a new not-so-lifeless corpse, and even though the foul smell swept over everything else I could still recognize the gray fur and the green eyes shining in the dark. When I called for her name though, she only repeated the same thing everyone else did.

“Help me.”

I turned around and ran as far away from the clearing as I could. The woods were unfamiliar and seemed to go on forever but at least the corpses were all left behind, and with the state they were in they couldn’t follow me fast enough. I would do this every night from that day forward, as it let me have some peace while I slept. This improved my waking life a lot, but the cries of the corpses would still echo in my ears.

_Help me. Help me. Help me._

Violetpaw had apparently witnessed Needletail’s death. Now with some of Darktail’s schemes revealed, the remaining Shadowclan cats were concerned of their warriors not having gotten a proper burial. Rowanstar himself was disinterested, claiming those cats were traitors and deserved to die like rogues.

The cats in my dreams all only had their skeletons left now. Those would still move, but I noticed they had stopped chasing me and were slowly moving closer to each other now. This was a welcome change, but I would still run away just in case. I found sleeping next to a bunch of bones deeply unsettling.

Some cats went looking for the corpses of the cats who’d been drowned by Darktail and his followers, but no matter how much they looked they couldn’t even find the remains that would now logically be left. Even Needletail, whose exact place of death was known, was nowhere to be found. The Clans assumed the bones must have been washed deeper into the lake and promised to keep their eyes open. Around that time I stopped having the dreams.

I still can’t sleep. Every rustle of leaves makes me jump and has my heart racing. I lie awake with my eyes wide open, staring outside of the den. They wanted help. But instead, I ran away, thinking they couldn’t follow.

I’m starting to fear I was mistaken.

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on a particularly unsettling nightmare I had. I thought I'll never be able to think of anything better while I'm awake so I composed a little Warriors Halloween fic.


End file.
